Calcutta, Aug. 9 :
Calcutta, Aug. 9:
Mohammedan Sporting maintained their clean chit in the Super Division of the Calcutta League Friday edging out Eastern Railway by a solitary goal at the Salt Lake Stadium. The goal that clinched the deal, however, came from controversial spot-kick, converted by Dipendu Biswas.
Mohammedan Sporting belly consisting of Amandeep Singh, Habeeb Adekunle and Amit Das looked far from match-fit.
But, their poor display did not cost much, because the Eastern Railway team was equally poor. They adopted an ultra-defensive approach and like most smaller teams in the Maidans, did not know what to do after conceding a goal. Yet they fell upon a chance in the 52nd minute when a Saikat Mondal pass found Swapan Das in the open, but he put the ball over the cross-piece with the goalkeeper at his mercy.
The match was also marked by some questionable supervision by referee Debjit Das. He gave Mohammedan the penalty when they did not deserve it. Amit Das was tackled from behind inside the box by Kuntal Biswas (it looked a fair tackle though), but a nice bit of play-acting by the veteran earned the glamour outfit the spot-kick.
However, the referee made it up in the 77th minute when Nabi beautifully wriggled into the rival box and was brought down by Santanu Bit. However, Seriki was booked during the match and will miss his team's next game against Tollygunge Agragami.
Teams
Mohammedan Sporting: Prasanta Dora, Reazul Mustafa, Insan Ali, Hussain Mustafi, Amandeep Singh, Amit Das (Arunava Sarkar, 60 min), Habeeb Adekunle, Khemtang Paite (Bhuvan Joshi, 46), Rahim Nabi, Dipendu Biswas, Abdulateef Seriki (Amjad Ansari, 89).
Eastern Railway: Tapan Karmakar, Santanu Dey, Nilanjan Guha, Santanu Bit, Sanchit Dutta Bhowmick, Shubhronil Dutta, Kuntal Biswas, Samrat Roy Chowdhury, Raju Mondal (Pradyut Roy, 54), Swapan Das (Somenath Pramanik, 63), Saikat Mondal.
Referee: Debjit Das.